Eddie And The Scoreboard (idea)

In the mid 1980's, local sports talk show host Eddie Andelman decided to sue the New England Patriots. Andelman owned a good deal of land around the stadium, but apparently decided that the Patriots had built the south end of their stadium on his land. Despite the fact that the stadium had been built more than 15 years prior, Andelman demanded compensation for the encroachment of his land.

Andelman is the personification of curmudgeon. He's bitter, vindictive, pessimistic, and generally seems to hate life. He quit his job at the sports station WEEI in Boston after they brought in someone else to help his show's dismal ratings. Andelman has always hated the Patriots, in part for the wrong he feels was done to him. But I digress.

Around the same time that this dispute was making its way through legal channels, team owner Billy Sullivan, in a strange lapse of his usual miserly ways, struck a deal with Mitsubishi for a giant, top-of-the-line end zone scoreboard. When Andelman found out that the Patriots wanted to place it at the south end of the stadium, he not only refused to let them put it on what he deemed was his property, but he also refused to let them bring it over his property to be installed. To make sure of this, he parked his boat-sized Lincoln in front of the stadium's south gate to keep vehicles from entering.

The Patriots considered their options. If they brought it straight across the field, the weight of the scoreboard would ruin the field. They thought about flooding the stadium and floating the scoreboard across, but the idea wasn't feasible. The team finally carried it underneath the stands in pieces, installing it in the middle of the end zone seats because they couldn't get construction equipment on the property to install it where they wanted to.

Andelman watched the whole process, too, spending every moment he wasn't sleeping or on-the-air at his plot in Foxboro, making sure no one crossed over onto his property line, spiteful that the Pats had found a way to put up their new scoreboard.

ADDENDUM:

Despite his outward attitude, Eddie Andelman is one of the most generous people in the Boston area. His annual "Hot Dog Safari" and other benefits raise thousands of dollars for local charities.